immersion feet

Ron brings up some good points in the 8 inch high danner boot thread. I agree 100 percent with his thoughts about wool socks and frequent changing. I wonder how many people here have had immersion foot (like dishpan hands...anyone do dishes? :>) or is this term foreign?)

Immersion injuries can be so bad that it progresses beyond the dishpan stage and to where your feet are red and swollen to the point you can't put your boots on or even walk.

Treatment includes:

1. Prevention is the key.
a. Avoid long term exposure of your feet to wet and cold socks by changing them daily and whenever they become wet.
b. To insure that your feet are receiving adequate blood circulation, loosen tight clothing and massage feet whenever resting and at night.
c. Pat wet feet dry...don't rub them since this results in furthering tissue damage.
2. If you do develop immersion feet...Keep feet dry and elevated. It may take several days before you are able to begin travel again.

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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
You are so very right, there was a time when I was younger when I worked at a used car lot and had to wash dozens of cars per day. It seemed like no matter what I wore my feet would get wet. They got to the point where they had deep splits in the callouses, some more than 1/4 inch deep. In the morning when I got up and they were hard I could barely walk, until they got wet again in the shower. This was one of the most miserable conditions I ever experienced, and it took a long time to recover from it after I got out of that environment. I recomeend anyone to avoid it as hard as possible.
 
W

Walt Welch

Joined
Oct 7, 1998
Messages
1,838
'Immersion foot' is a term that was coined in WWI. It is a condition just as you described, except that there is a superimposed infection, usually bacterial, present. The bacteria get in through the breaks in the skin.

The term is not used any more, probably because the condition is now so rare.

Walt
 
The Doughboys and Tommies referred to immersion foot as "trench foot". It was rampant among the front line infantry, as they spent a great deal of time standing in trenches filled with standing water. Of course the boots they wore were not water proof, and the injuries were the result of
prolonged exposure to soaking wet conditions.
 
Started to get immersion foot once on Okinawa. We were out on a week long FTX and a typhoon blew in. Was unable to get dry socks or boots for 3 days. Every chance I got took off the boots (green canvas jungle) and tried wringing out my socks, then putting dry corn starch in the socks and on my toes. (always carried corn starch in the butpack) My feet started to swell up just a tad and were pastey white with the skin starting to peel and were extremly painfull. When I was finally able to get to my Danners (Ft Lewis) and dry socks with lots of corn starch I was in heaven.

We had a guy who got "immersion hands" and needed to be evacued due to his own stupidity . He would not listen to anybody and kept sitting on his hands in a foxhole filled with watter. He also got hypotheria from this at approx 50 degrees. I took a poncho and some heat tabs made a tent out of the poncho and lit the heat tabs inside the poncho creating a small warm place for this looser. When doing this you must not breath the fumes as they are toxic.

 
I spent three years in Okinawa and know what you are talking about. It can be pretty harsh conditions. The humidity is so high that when it is 40 F it is really cold. Unlike Northern Alaska where it can be 20 below and yet seem warmer. Just my personal experience.

BTW, I saw a troop with immersion foot and he was pulled from training it was so bad...it is still around. This student was an instructor wanna be...he didn't make it.

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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
Greg....

I've had it before,, Not to that degree,, but about where the dishpan foot comes in...
It's not fun...

BUT..

I'll tell you one thing..
I'll take Immersion foot over immersion ASS anyday...

There is nothing worse then a wet ass for a long period of time... Holy crap talk about itch!

I've had it many times duck hunting,, and it gets pretty wicked.. There is NO Way that someone can sit still with a wet itchy ass...

If I was every captured all they'd have to do is stick my ass in a bucket for abit,,and I'll sing like a bird...LOL

Terrible feeling! :O

Keep Your Head Low and your Powder,,Ummm Errr Ass Dry !!

Eric - On/Scene

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Eric E. Noeldechen
On/Scene Tactical
http://www.mnsi.net/~nbtnoel


 
I get TOO HOT on 20 deg F days when out rifle hunting if the snow is deep! This usually leads to me sweating a LOT! Thus my feet have become exactly what you have described-dishpan feet!

I have resolved much of it by doing the following:
SLOWING WAY DOWN! I don't cover as much ground, and get more deer!
smile.gif

I change my socks even during the day!
I wear wool socks instead of cotton!

I never realized that it was the beginnings of Immersion Foot. I just didn't like it and looked for solutions right away!



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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
Immersion Ass....hmmmm. could be a problem. LOL. I may have to include this medical condition in my next book, "Wilderness Living" which will be available in about 1 year. What do you think? :>)

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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
Hey Greg...

Good stuff.. LOL

BUT !! You can't talk about it until you experience the Itch...
It's like no other itch you've ever had...

I don't know if a cream or something would help it,, but boy is it Nasty!!!

Itchy, Sore, Bleeding Feet Anyday over wet ass!!! LOL

ttyle Eric - On/Scene

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Eric E. Noeldechen
On/Scene Tactical
http://www.mnsi.net/~nbtnoel


 
You're right...the only way to truely understand and teach (write) about something is to teach from the heart. In order to do this you must experience it. Guess, I'll go sit in a tub full of cold water for a couple of days. Or perhaps...I'll just leave it out of the book. :>)

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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
Feet are so important that I thought I'd let this topic pass through again...BTTT

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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
An older thread, but it brought back some memories...

I was stupid enough to get immersion foot twice.

The first time, in 1977 when I was a tenderfoot (literally) civilian. It was in the Carter era, bad economy, and the only job I could get was as a night watchman in a condemned apartment complex in a scary part of south Phoenix. My first day on the job, a water main had burst and the entire complex was ankle deep in water. I was told I had to start work an hour before I began my shift that night, and didn't have a decent pair of shoes or boots. The only thing I had that looked vaguely like the low-quarters the job required to be worn with the uniform was a pair of worn, zip-up, leatherette ankle-high boots ("fruit-boots," in the vernacular). (We made a lot of bad fashion choices in those days.)

I was required to make my rounds through this very large complex at a pretty fast clip, as I had to hit different key points in the complex where a key was chained to a post, and turn the key in a little box I carried to document that I was there. So I couldn't stay still for long, and basically had to slog non-stop through cold ankle-deep water for eight hours with a 15 minute lunch break. The cheap shoes I was wearing quickly became saturated and full of water. My replacement didn't show up in the morning, and I had been told that I could only leave when my replacement arrived. There was no working phone in the complex or nearby to check on my replacement, so I walked an additional 4 hours until I finally got in my car and drove to a pay phone. The dispatcher told me that my replacement had quit, and to go home and come back again the next night.

My feet hurt like hell at that point, and when I got home and pulled my shoes off, I saw that my feet were chalk white, wrinkled like a sharpei dog's face, and walking in them felt like razors cutting my feet with each step. They stayed like that for a week.

I had no idea what immersion foot was, or what the treatment was. I also had no money for a doctor, and to go to the county emergency room would have taken all day when I just desperately wanted to sleep. So I attached some Dr. Scholl's adhesive foam all over my feet (!) and went back again and again for a week, slogging through the water, feeling like I had bags of old razor blades strapped around my feet, until eventually the water in the complex dried out and my feet got slowly better.

That was the worst job I ever had, but we were in the middle of an economic recession and I really needed the work.

As a side note, the only weapon they issued me for this gang infested neighborhood was a "shock baton" - a night stick-cattle prod combination. I can only imagine what could have happened if I had tried to use it while standing in ankle deep water!

In 1982, I got immersion foot again while in the 82nd Airborne, on a 2-week ARTEP in North Carolina during which it rained, literally non-stop, throughout the exercise. There was no way to keep your socks dry, even though I tried the old infantryman's trick of sticking my wet socks inside my helmet liner, where the rising heat from my head did an okay job of drying them off (made my head smell funny, though). But when I put them on, after a half-an-hour patrolling through the muck and mire, they were soaking wet again. Everyone in my company got full-on immersion foot, and it was very hard to move quietly during night patrols when all you could hear was whispered mutterings: "Damn!" "@#%$!" "Ouch!" "Aiyai!" "&%$*#!" all the night long...

Just venting,
Mick.
 
I've never had immersion foot but after watching Rons videos I take his advise on resting my feet frequently. Even when it's cold out it feels good to take my boots off and give my feet a little massage. It really makes a difference.
Thanks again Ron.
Tim
 
God knows what I have then... I caught something nasty in Korea in '92... I believed at the time that it was a combination of althletes foot and immersion foot, but who the hell knows.

Anyhow, for the rest of the time in the military, my right pinky and "ring" toes would crack, bleed and itch, especially in hot / wet weather. Sure, I changed socks often (and did the "socks from the belt under the shirt" trick on patrol"), and used everything from Desenex, to Tinactin, to anti fungal cream, and the crap keeps coming back to this day.

It only happens when my feet are hot and wet for long periods... but man does it suck. I had to take to wearing sandals for a time, and that helped, but when I switched back to sneakers it returned again. Nothing ever seems to cure it either, just puts it in remission...
biggrin.gif


Man, some of the stuff I've tried was interesting to say the least... including washing my sandals in the dishwasher multiple times, throwing out shoes, etc....

SPark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
Whoo that was an interesting discussion
smile.gif
I was also wondering if anyone has any thoughts on if goretex socks/liners would help? You're supposed to be able to "sweat" through them (hah!). Anybody have any experice with em?

I also had someone reccomend soaking your feet in bleach (solution) to get rid of a fungal infection. I don't know about that though. I'd worry about absorbing such a toxic chemical. I also tried soaking em in vodka once. I think it helped?

later

shiro
 
Bleach works. I think I'd let all the water problems go away, but if you have persistant problems that are definately fungal related, bleach will kill the fungi. I had success with a relatively dilute solution (About 1-2 cups chlorox to a gallon of water) but I had a friend who used a lot more. He said he did peel a layer of skin off his feet, but never had a fungal problem again... You decide if it's worth it...


Stryver
 
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